The Artemis I unmanned lunar rocket sits on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 25, 2022. Credit: NASA
What went wrong with Artemis I was on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, so that’s where NASA has decided to try and fix it.
On Tuesday, mission managers announced they would hold off rolling back to the Vehicle Assembly Building the 5.75 million-pound, 322-foot-tall combination of the Space Launch System rocket, Orion capsule and mobile launcher.
Instead, they will stay at Launch Pad 39-B to work on the source of the Saturday’s scrub, which was the second scrub of NASA’s attempt to send the uncrewed Artemis I on a multiweek mission to the moon. It’s the first step in its eventual plans to return humans, including the first woman, to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.
The most recent issue in the $4.1 billion rocket was yet another cryogenic liquid hydrogen leak on a fuel feed line that runs from the mobile launcher into the core stage of the SLS. Similar issues plagued wet dress rehearsals in April and June as well as the first launch attempt. NASA has decided to replace the seal on the connector, called the quick disconnect, at the launch pad.
The decision isn’t simple as it requires the setup of an enclosure around the work area to make sure environmental conditions don’t damage the hardware. If NASA had rolled back to the VAB, the same work would have been done, but in a more controlled work environment.
But NASA can’t test the fix at the VAB. It can only do cryogenic fuel loading at the pad, and since that’s what ultimately thwarted the last launch attempt, NASA opted for the launch pad fix.
“Performing the work at the pad also allows teams to gather as much data as possible to understand the cause of the issue,” reads an update on the NASA website.
In addition, NASA teams will check for potential leaks on the other six main umbilical lines running into the SLS. Before launch, the core stage has to be filled with 537,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and 196,000 gallons of liquid oxygen to help fuel the four RS-25 engines at the base of the core stage that along with two solid rocket boosters will give SLS 8.8 million pounds of thrust on liftoff. That would make SLS the most powerful rocket to have ever lifted off from Earth.
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The scrub forced NASA to miss this window for a launch, which ended Tuesday. The next window runs from Sept. 19-Oct. 4, but there are a couple of hurdles to making that window.
The biggest is a current agreement NASA has with Space Launch Delta 45, which runs the Eastern Range, which has only given Artemis I a 25-day window before the batteries on its self-destruct mechanism called the flight termination system, has to be checked. They can only be checked and potentially recharged at the VAB.
That constraint would force NASA to have to roll back, which would take several weeks before a return to the pad. NASA may want to do that in any case after the launch pad fixes to “perform additional work that does not require use of the cryogenic facilities available only at the pad,” according to the NASA post.
A second issue is the upcoming Crew-5 mission slated to send four passengers up to the International Space Station in a SpaceX Crew Dragon atop a Falcon 9 rocket to launch from nearby Launch Pad 39-A. NASA officials said they won’t attempt any launch that would delay the Crew-5 mission, which is slated to fly no earlier than Oct. 3.
Managers did discuss the possibility of asking for clearance from the Eastern Range to remain at the pad beyond the 25 day limit in place, and if work on the launch pad can be completed quickly, there could be an opportunity still to aim for a launch in the front end of the September window.
“Let’s remember we’re not going to launch until it’s right,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson at a post-scrub press conference Saturday. “That is standard operating procedure and will continue to be.”
That could mean waiting until windows that run Oct. 17-31, Nov. 12-27 and Dec. 9-23. Each window has only certain days during which the Earth and moon are in the right position for the mission.
A rollback, though, can also be a challenge, said NASA’s SLS program manager John Honeycutt.
“The big thing we want to avoid is is rollbacks to the VAB,” he said last week ahead of the scrub. “Those are the things that (SLS chief engineer John Blevins) has told me put more stress on the vehicle than anything else.”
Honeycutt, though, said the capacity to roll back was not out of the question.
“We’ve still got rolls left in the vehicle but we want to watch that and manage it,” he said.
He also said there are plenty of opportunities left to load and unload cryogenic fuel to the tank, something it has now endured several times with the two launch attempts. several wet dress rehearsals earlier this year as well as hot fire tests in 2021.
“I know we’re well into the double-digits home for additional tank cycles,” he said. “As far as worrying about things with the rocket sitting on the pad, there are probably more little things like seeing cracking, cracks in the (thermal protection system foam) that we have to go analyze to clear.”
The first launch scrub on Aug. 29 came after a smaller liquid hydrogen leak on a different line took several hours to work through, and then a malfunctioning sensor that misread the temperatures of the engine.
NASA’s Jim Free, associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said the second attempt was not taken lightly, and managers had confidence that they would not encounter the same issues. In the end the scrub was the right call, reminding people this is a test flight.
“We talked about this mission being risky,” he said. “But we’re going to take the risks that makes sense, the risk that we know that have already pushed the vehicle and the system as far as it will when we launch, and be ready to go at that time.”
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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
